


pick yourself up

by LiveLaughLovex



Series: start all over again [2]
Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: AU Post 3x02, AU season 3, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 15:42:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15343059
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LiveLaughLovex/pseuds/LiveLaughLovex
Summary: Jake takes Olivia out to dinner. They come to some understandings along the way.





	pick yourself up

Jake was right about Cate’s. The place was quiet, clean, and too far away from the Mall to be surrounded by intrusive cameras the moment they set foot inside. The atmosphere was friendly, which was something new for Olivia. They were escorted to a corner booth almost immediately by a plump blonde-haired woman with a hundred-watt smile. She took their drink and appetizer orders, chatting candidly with them as she did. She then headed for the kitchen, leaving Jake and Olivia to chat quietly until their orders were brought out to them. 

“How are you and Cate related?” Olivia asked curiously, smiling her thanks at their waitress as the woman placed a glass of iced tea in front of her. “You’ve never mentioned her before.”

“You and I didn’t really talk about family when we were together the first time around, Liv. Not to mention the fact that if I were to bring up every cousin I have in conversation, we’d never stop talking,” Jake informed her, lifting his own glass of tea and taking a sip. “Cate’s my uncle’s daughter,” he said after a moment. “The day after my sister died, my mother made plans to leave my father. Uncle Richard was the one who helped her escape.” 

Olivia nodded her understanding. “There’s a reason you’ve never talked about your father, isn’t there?” she asked gently. If he didn’t have an answer he was prepared to give, she would accept his silence without question. She more than most understood the shame felt because of a parent’s actions. 

“He was a horrible father,” Jake replied bluntly. “There are a lot of reasons I’ve never talked about him. A lot of reasons I don’t ever want to talk about him again.” 

“Okay,” Olivia said quietly. “Then you never have to talk about him again. How do you feel about the chicken margherita?” she asked, glancing back towards the menu in front of her. 

“It’s…” Jake blinked rapidly, glancing towards her. “It’s fine. It’s my great-grandmother’s recipe, so it’s great. Liv, are we all right?” 

“We’re fine.” Olivia sighed when the naval officer remained unconvinced. “Jake, I understand screwed-up families, all right? I’ve got a dead mother and a father who doesn’t know how to be a father when I move out from underneath his thumb. And I know, without a doubt, there are some conversations about my childhood experiences I will forever avoid having. It would be really hypocritical of me to expect you to tell me everything, now wouldn’t it?” 

“Yes, it would, but you like answers,” Jake reminded her. “You like logic. It’s one of the things about you that I find so attractive. We balance each other out.”

“Yes, we do. I don’t run into unknown situations with my weapons drawn, but I also don’t know how to use a sniper rifle. We both bring different things to the table, don’t we?” Olivia said dryly, turning towards their waitress – Grace, her nametag read – when the woman returned to top off their drinks and take their food orders. 

“What can I get you?” the woman asked, pen poised above her notepad as she gazed at Olivia expectantly, polite smile still in place. 

“The chicken margherita, please,” Olivia ordered. “With extra breadsticks.” She smiled at Jake across the table. “If I’m going to wreck my diet, might as well wreck it completely, right?” 

“Oh, please, like you need to be on a diet anyway,” Jake replied with a shake of his head, turning towards the waitress with a smile. “The chicken parmesan, please,” he ordered for himself. “And I guess I’ll take extra breadsticks with that, too.”

“Great,” Grace said, jotting down the order. “Your side salads will be out in a few minutes. Italian dressing all right with the both of you?” She returned their nods. “I’ll go on and put this in, then. It shouldn’t take long.” 

“Thank you,” Jake called after her. He glanced over Olivia’s shoulder and shook his head, his ready smile widening. “Ah, there’s the star of the show,” he said, his tone becoming slightly louder than it had been before. He stood from the booth and greeted the approaching woman with a warm embrace. “Olivia, this is my baby cousin Cate. Cate, this is Olivia Pope.” 

Cate’s smile was as genuine as they came when she met Olivia’s eyes. “We all know who she is, Jake. You haven’t exactly shut up about her in the past few months,” she teased, a bit of a southern lilt to her words. She extended her hand towards Olivia. “It’s nice to meet you, Ms. Pope. We all appreciate you keeping this dimwit in line. You’re doing a better job of it than anyone else ever has.” 

“I have a degree from the University of Pennsylvania, you know,” Jake pointed out with a good-natured eyeroll. “I graduated top of my class, and that was while I was in the Reserves. Why does everyone insist on calling me a dimwit?”

“Because, Jake, you run into battle instead of away from it. It makes you a hero. It also makes you an idiot,” Cate replied, not even bothering to glance towards her cousin. “How did you two meet? He won’t spill on the details.” 

“Through work,” Olivia replied quickly. “I was working a murder on behalf of a friend of the victim, and the woman had ties to the Pentagon. Your cousin was the person I was sent to speak to by the people at the front desk.” 

“Of course he was,” Cate said with a fond smile. “You didn’t even have to work for it, did you? Girl of your dreams just walked through the door.” 

“Oh, I most definitely had to work for it,” Jake protested, ignoring Olivia’s amused smirk. “I’m pretty sure I saw a couple signing divorce papers at the table next to me on our first date. That’s how stuffy the restaurant she chose was. And, to add to it, she refused to call that date a date at all. She kept referring to it as a meeting.” 

“In my defense, we were working a case,” Olivia said with a smile. “But he’s right. I did make his life just slightly more difficult than it needed to be.” 

“Slightly, sure,” Jake muttered under his breath, smile still in place. 

“I like her. You’re taking her home to Aunt Pippa soon, aren’t you?” Cate asked, glancing between them. 

“If she’s comfortable with it,” Jake said cautiously, glancing over at Olivia. “This is still pretty new, Cate.”

“New? I thought it’d been going on for a few months,” Cate asked confusedly, glancing between them. 

“We met a few months ago. We, uh…” Jake glanced towards Olivia, his eyes begging for assistance.

“We broke things off for a few weeks,” Olivia filled in. “It wasn’t until a few nights ago when he showed up on my doorstep that we decided to start fresh.” Her words were more for Jake than they were for Cate. If he was in this for the long run, so was she. 

“Well, if he showed up looking like that and you still agreed to be seen with him, then you must really like him,” Cate teased lightly.

“Yeah,” Olivia replied, her eyes never leaving the naval officer’s. “Yeah, I do.” She cleared her throat when Jake smiled slightly at her words. Why did he have to be so consistently easy to please? It was eventually going to give her a complex. Just how badly had she treated him in the past?

Cate turned slightly when someone called her name loudly from the kitchen. “I need to leave before someone burns down my baby,” she informed them. “It was lovely to meet you, Olivia. Jake, you better be at Sunday dinner!” she called as she walked away.

“Wouldn’t miss it!” Jake called back, shaking his head when she raised a hand in acknowledgement. He glanced towards Olivia. “You don’t have to take that to heart, you know. What she said about my mom. You can meet her whenever you’re ready. She doesn’t mind waiting.” 

“Is this a date?” Olivia asked suddenly, leaving him staring at her confusedly. “You’re flirting and footing the bill, but I don’t think we ever came out and put a label on this. It’s a date, right?”

“It’s a date,” Jake agreed immediately. 

“And if we’re dating, that means we’re in a relationship, doesn’t it?” she continued logically.

“Yes, that’s usually what it means,” Jake replied slowly, still not entirely understanding what she was saying. 

“And people in relationships, they usually introduce one another to their families, do they not?” Olivia finished, a triumphant smile on her face.

“Yes,” Jake said, finally comprehending what it was she was saying. “Yes, they do.”

“Look, you’ve met my family. Abby, Huck, Harrison, Quinn, they’re my family. If you can handle my family, I can handle yours,” she told him confidently.

“Well, all right then,” Jake replied, a proud smile in place. “Then I guess I’m taking you home to meet my mother.”

“I guess you are.”


End file.
